Non-photographer has to learn to use a studio light kit ASAP

November 22, 2013 10:13 AM

Because I've taken photos that people like, my boss has given me the task of shooting a few corporate studio portraits using the company's equipment (studio light kit and light meter). The problem is that I've never used any of this stuff and have no idea where to begin. I've watched a few YouTube videos but they seem to assume some familiarity with the topic. I have none! While I understand things like f-stop and shutter speed, I've always used the auto settings on my camera. I have any eye for composition but no practical photo equipment skills. Can anyone offer a quick tutorial on how I use this stuff?

Here's what I have: Nikon D7000 body w/ 85mm 1.8 lens, Dyna-Lite M500xl power pack and three lights w/umbrellas, PocketWizard MultiMAX Transceiver, Polaris flash meter.

An I screwed or what?

posted by Jamesonian to Media & Arts (12 answers total)

Best answer: Not screwed at all.

There's only really one thing to know: shutter speed is more or less irrelevant.

First: decide what ISO you want to use. Low ISO will be cleaner; high ISO will be noisier. ISO 400 is probably a reasonable place to start.

Second: decide what you want your depth of field to look like. I generally start with f5.6 for portraits. Different lenses have a different sweet spots where their focus is sharpest, but 5.6 is a good starting point. Lower aperture numbers (f1.8) will have less depth of field; f22 will have much more in focus.

Third: position your lights. You probably can just use two lights, one on each side of the subject, a 6-10 feet out, slightly higher than eye level. You're probably going for consistent coverage, not dramatic effects.

Fourth: power your lights. I don't know whether your setup allows you to set the power remotely (mine does)--but stand where your subject will stand, put the light meter to your chin and trigger the lights. Trigger each light separately (turn one off, if necessary). Adjust the power until the meter reads f5.6 (or whatever). Then set the power on the other light.

Fifth: experiment with shutter speed. Shutter speed is relevant ONLY to control ambient light. If you're in a room with bad light (fluorescents, eg) turn the shutter speed high. That will mean less ambient light will hit the sensor. It will not have ANY effect on the exposure, which is a function of the fstop and the lights, which you've already set up. Turn the speed all the way up, and your subject might be standing in a black field (but the subject will be perfectly lit). Turn it down low, and you'll see all the light in the room (but your subject will still be the same).

And that's pretty much it.

The one thing you must do--promise me!--is that you will get your shit together before your subject comes in. Can you take the gear home and practice setting everything up, making sure you know how the lights and receivers and umbrellas fit together?

There is nothing worse than struggling with your equipment while someone sits there wondering why it's taking so long. Also, a lot of people hate having their picture taken; exuding confidence makes everyone more comfortable.

Good luck! Have fun!
posted by Admiral Haddock at 10:34 AM on November 22, 2013 [14 favorites]

Also--if this wasn't clear--you need to be shooting on manual.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 10:39 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

Admiral Haddock has excellent advice. Get your sweetie or kids in to practice before your colleagues.

It is often most flattering if you can diffuse the light and light from behind you. For example there may be a sort of tent called a soft box that goes over the light and it should be worth it to figure out how to use it.
posted by shothotbot at 11:02 AM on November 22, 2013

One thing to add to Admiral Haddock's very reasonable answer: don't overdo the shutter speed. If you go above the maximum sync speed (on my camera/flash setup that's 1/250 but it may be different for you) you'll see that only part of your image is lit. That's because the flash has to fire in the time that the shutter is open and most cameras have a limit.
posted by itsjustanalias at 11:11 AM on November 22, 2013

The trickiest part is aiming the lights. Here's a pretty good tutorial from Sekonic. The flash units have modeling lights, so you can see what the lighting will look like, roughly, before you take the exposure. Once you get used to it, it's a lot of fun.

The second trickiest part is using the flash meter.

- Hold the light meter in front of the subject, the white dome pointed at where you'll be positioning the camera. Make sure your body isn't between the dome and the flash units.
- Here's how to use your model of meter.
- Trigger the flash by taking a photo with the transceiver attached to the hot-shoe on top of the camera. The camera can be in your hand and pointed at nothing, we just need it to set off the lights while we meter.
- Once you get the exposure for any given lighting setup, you're done. Flash lighting doesn't change unless you deliberately change it. Once you move the lights all around, take another reading.

Third trickiest part is setting up the lights, but that's just tinkering with it.

Easiest part is the camera. Set it to manual, set the shutter to 1/250'th of a second, the ISO to 100, and set the f/stop to whatever the meter tells you. Easy peasy.

Hardest part will be getting the lighting to look good - experiment and practice a bit before doing something for your job. Ask them for permission to take the equipment home for a weekend or two, and find someone who's game to be your subject for an hour or two at a time.
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:21 AM on November 22, 2013

My recommendation is to set your camera to manual, ISO 100, f4.5 and shutter 1/125. And leave it there. Put it on a tripod so your camera is in the same spot for all of the shots. One Pocket Wizard on your camera's hot shoe, one Pocket Wizard on the flash. Turn them on.

Grab a test subject and put them 4 feet away from the wall behind them. Turn their body so their shoulders are pointing slightly left of the camera and they have to turn their head slightly right to look at the camera - it's more flattering than straight on.

Then set up ONE light with an umbrella. Put it at 45 degrees from the subject, to the left of your camera.

Take a test shot. Is it too dark? Turn the flash power up. Is it too bright? Turn the flash power down.

After your test photo looks good, set up a SECOND light with an umbrella. Put it at 45 degrees from the subject, to the right of your camera. Turn the flash power a little lower than the power on the other flash.

Take a test shot. The second flash doesn't show up? Turn the flash power up. The second flash is too bright? Turn the power down.

Now that everything looks good for your test shots, leave everything exactly where it is. Have all of your non-test subjects sit/stand in the same spot facing the same way as your test subject.

Once a real subject is sitting for you, chat with them. How is their day going? See the game last night? How are their kids? This relaxes them and it relaxes you and the photos will be better for it. Make eye contact. Crack jokes. Take lots of photos of each subject, even if you only have a few minutes with each.
posted by rhapsodie at 12:21 PM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

Something else a ton of people overlook, have a way to view the shots on set that isn't that tiny monitor on the back of the camera. Have a monitor/laptop there to view each batch of shots. You don't want to shoot an big-wig and find out later that all of your shots contain a stray pimple/wild nose-chest-eyebrow-head hair/seersucker suit*.

Once a real subject is sitting for you, chat with them. How is their day going? See the game last night? How are their kids? This relaxes them and it relaxes you and the photos will be better for it. Make eye contact. Crack jokes. Take lots of photos of each subject, even if you only have a few minutes with each.

This. Make sure to not talk politics. As a bonus, now all these guys are gonna know your name, and if you make them look good, I guarantee you that some of them will remember it. This can be really beneficial to your career path.

It's kind of funny to me, I work in video, and the idea of a flash is so horribly confusing to me. Why not just light it that way you like it? AAAAAAHHHHHH

*Two of these have happened to me.
posted by Sphinx at 4:33 PM on November 22, 2013

Also, look at the subject objectively. Sitting up straight? Hair combed? Stray hairs patted down? Eyebrows tidy? Tie straight? Suit jacket collar not gaping in back? Easier to fix it now than in Photoshop.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:47 PM on November 22, 2013

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-point_lighting is decent for explaining what key light, fill light, and back light are, although I am sure there are really good tutorials and write-ups out there. Anyway, it should provide definitions which you can use to then parse other stuff.

See also low-key lighting and high-key lighting.
posted by sebastienbailard at 5:24 PM on November 22, 2013

May I suggest Strobist? This is a blog that is specifically dedicated to teaching people how to light photos properly. He has a whole series of posts for beginners about this.

Also, learn to shoot manually, as others have suggested. The good part about this is that you are shooting digital, so you don't have to worry about burning a bunch of expensive film. It may seem intimidating at first, but you'll figure it out pretty quickly.
posted by azpenguin at 9:59 PM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I can't thank you all enough! You've given me hope. And hopefully kept me employed!
posted by Jamesonian at 12:12 AM on November 23, 2013

If you haven't shot flash at all before this is a great 13 minute youtube video that shows you what it's like with some barehead flashes. I found it great for me when I was learning off camera flash to SEE what was happening.

When you have more time/money I really enjoyed Zack's creativeLive courses. They are from the earlier days of cL when they still let the students shoot. The Foundations of a Working Photographer covers a lot of great basics, including natural light, studio lights and even a short headshot shoot.

Best of luck with it! You have some great equipment to get started.
posted by ladyriffraff at 3:12 PM on November 23, 2013 [1 favorite]